Celle-Lévescault circular loop

Start from the leisure centre car park.

(S/E) Head south, walking down towards the village. Turn right into the meadow, heading towards the river. Turn left and follow the river until you reach a wooden footbridge.

(1) Cross the river via the footbridge. Continue straight on and, as you emerge from the woods, turn left, walking past a school along a narrow path through a charming little garden. You’ll reach a road junction.

(2) As you leave the little garden, follow the road to the right and walk past the town hall. Take the^first left, into Rue de la Renaudette. After about fifty metres, turn right (note the façade of an old house). Cross Rue de la Jurie on the right-hand side and follow the path straight on. Walk behind a farm on the right-hand side and you’ll come to a crossroads.

(3) Turn right, then left into Rue de la Métairie, which climbs slightly.

(4) Take the^first path on the left, then ignore a turn-off on the left. You’ll come to a road; follow it to the right.

(5) Turn left, leaving the hamlet of Laudonnière on your right. Continue along the red and white marked path (GR®).

(6) Cross a road (leaving the GR®). After about a hundred metres, cross another road and continue along the path opposite.

(7) Cross the D742with care, then turn left onto a small road. Immediately afterwards, turn right onto a path. After a descent through the trees, walk alongside a pond on your left.

(8) At the end of the track, follow a small road to the left and pass through the hamlet of Le Pré. Take the^first road on the left and pass through the hamlet of Le Terrier.

(9) At the T-junction, turn left. Ignore the paths on the right. Pass through the hamlet of La Martinière, and leave the hamlet of Pizais on your right. Cross a small bridge over the Longève, continue straight on, and leave the hamlet of La Pichardière on your left.

(10) At the next junction, at the entrance to the hamlet of Landraudière, turn right towards La Livraie. Before reaching this hamlet, turn left onto a path that climbs up through the trees. Cross a road and continue straight ahead through the trees. You’ll come to a road.

(11) Follow it to the right. Cross the D742 and follow it carefully to the right for about a hundred metres.

(12) At the junction, turn left towards the village and head down the Grand Rue. At the Fork in the road, veer right into the Ruelle du 27 Juin 1944, which climbs alongside the cemetery. You’ll come out onto the Rue de l’Orme; follow it to the left and downhill. At the junction, turn right, walk past the foot of the church, and return to a junction you passed on the way out.

(2) Turn right into Rue Saint-Macou. Take the^first left, then immediately turn left again through a small opening in a low stone wall. Follow a path alongside the Vonne and reach a junction at the footbridge you passed on the way there.

(1) Ignore the footbridge; take the path on the right. Continue straight on along the road until you reach the car park (S/E).

A shaded picnic area and playground with a magnificent view of the old bridge and the River Vonne, which splits into several branches.

After the landmark (8), before turning left, you can continue for 50 m to see a Protestant cemetery, then rejoin the route; at the edge of the hamlet known as Le Terrier, there are also graves hidden by a hedge.

See the recently restored church (early 2022) and numerous medieval houses.